Events & History

2013: Year in Review

We remember names — from the scandalous Miley Cyrus and Edward Snowden to history's Pope Francis and Prince George — and places like Boston and Oklahoma ... a date in 1963

by Bill Hogan, December 19, 2013|Comments: 0

January 2

En español | The president signs the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, averting a "fiscal cliff" that threatened to plunge the nation back into recession. The law also extends expiring jobless benefits, blocks scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and delays across-the-board spending cuts.
— Bloomberg/Getty Images

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January 14

"I'm 50! I'm 50!" actress Jodie Foster shouts at the beginning of a rambling acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. She goes on to give her first-ever public shout-out to Cydney Bernard, her then-life partner and co-parent.
— NBC/AP

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January 20

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office that begins President Barack Obama's second term on the date set by the U.S. Constitution. It's the seventh time a president has taken the oath on a Sunday and then again on Monday for ceremonial purposes.
— The White House

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March 13

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, 76, is elected the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Taking the name Francis, he is the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years, the first Jesuit pope and the first South American to lead the church.
— AFP/Getty Images

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April 15

Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Wash., is running his third Boston Marathon when, as he nears the finish line, he's knocked down by one of two bomb blasts that kill three people and is caught in a news photograph that immediately goes viral. Iffrig, 78, gets up and finishes the race.
— John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/AP

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May 17

"Yes, of course," celebrity chef Paula Deen, 66, replies when asked during a videotaped deposition whether she has ever used the "N-word." After details of the deposition leak out on June 19, Deen loses not only her contract with the Food Network but also a series of endorsement deals.
— NBCU/Getty Images

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May 20

A tornado in Moore, Okla., claims 25 lives and destroys homes, vehicles and schools. The next day, during an interview with CBS News, resident Barbara Garcia is overcome with emotion when her miniature schnauzer, Bowser, assumed killed during the storm, is found wriggling beneath debris.
— CBS This Morning

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June 9

Edward J. Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, reveals that he leaked documents detailing mass-surveillance programs of the U.S. government. Snowden, 29, holes up in a Hong Kong hotel after fleeing the United States and in July will be granted temporary asylum in Russia.
— Getty Images

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June 26

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, strikes down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which has barred the recognition of same-sex marriages. Edie Windsor, 84, who brought the case challenging the law, is cheered as she arrives for a news conference in New York.
— AP

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July 22

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife, Kate, "could not be happier" after she gives birth to a boy. The future king (Prince George) is born in the same hospital in London's Paddington where Diana, Princess of Wales, gave birth to princes William and Harry.
— AFP/Getty Images

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August 23

In an interview with AARP, singer Linda Ronstadt, 67, discloses that she "can't sing a note" anymore because she has Parkinson's disease. Ronstadt says she started showing signs of the debilitating illness as long as eight years ago but chalked up her inability to sing to other ailments.
— ABC/Getty Images

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August 28

On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, President Obama takes to the same steps of the Lincoln Memorial to remember how the "soaring oratory" of the civil rights leader "gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions."
— AFP/Getty Images

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September 2

At 64, Diana Nyad becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, stepping ashore in Key West about 53 hours after hitting the water in Havana. "I'm by far at the peak of my life right now, even physically," she later tells AARP.
— AP

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September 24

After years of legal wrangling, the estate of millionaire mining heiress Huguette Clark, who died in 2011 at the age of 104, is settled. The deal mainly benefits arts charities and distant relatives; a lawyer and an accountant whose work for Clark came under question won't get a cent.
— AP

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October 1

The federal government mostly shuts down after Congress fails to fund the 2014 fiscal year. (Regular operations resume Oct. 17.) It's also the first day of open enrollment on HealthCare.gov, but the website created to carry out the new health care law doesn't cooperate.
— Bloomberg/Getty Images

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November 12

James "Whitey" Bulger, the Boston gangster who eluded authorities for 16-plus years, receives two consecutive life sentences plus five years. A jury convicted Bulger, 84, of racketeering, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice, narcotics distribution and participating in 11 murders.
— Reuters/Landov

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November 19

In the largest-ever settlement with the U.S. government, banking giant JPMorgan Chase agrees to pay $13 billion and admits to serious misrepresentations in sales of "toxic" mortgage-backed securities. "Pay the price and try to move on," CEO Jamie Dimon later says.
— Susan Walsh/AP

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November 22

Somber and mostly subdued remembrances mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, 85-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith, the slain president's last surviving sibling, lays a wreath at her brother's grave.
— AP

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December 10

MTV names Miley Cyrus, who made "twerk" part of the national vocabulary, its Best Artist of 2013. It says Cyrus had the year's most-visited artist page on the Internet and that her medley of "We Can't Stop/Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke from the MTV Video Music Awards was the most-watched video.
— Getty Images